


locked in the ring (throw away the key)

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Persona 3, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Genre: Between the Scenes, Canon Compliant, Canon-typical language, Fluff if you can call it fluff with these two, Friendship, Game Filler, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 04:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3637452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He cast his gaze around the culture festival. The whole situation came with a rush of both familiarity and uneasiness.</p><p>Aki clearly loved it. Shinji saw the thrill, but <i>someone </i>had to have a level head between the two of them.</p><hr/><p>Someone had to look after this idiot.</p><p>[Persona Q filler friendship fluff(ish). Set during the events of PQ but no real knowledge of the game needed. Just some Shinji&Aki.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	locked in the ring (throw away the key)

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time since I've written these boys and I can't handle it. I love Shinji. And Aki and him are just priceless. Also trying to write some Persona fic to combat my writer's block, so hopefully people don't think it turned out too bad.
> 
> I do not own _Persona 3/Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth_. Thanks for reading!

"Dumbass."

"I heard you the first time."

"Yeah, well, I've told you before and you don't seem to get it."

Shinji rolled his eyes as Aki looked away. He knew that he was deflecting the insult and dodging the situation, again, and that he was itching to return to the battlefield, as usual. The way that his fingers clenched into fists and then relaxed was the tip-off. Shinji wasn't about to let him go off back into the labyrinth if he could help it.

"Hurry up," Akihiko demanded.

"Shut up. You're not going back out there."

"They're going to be on their way back by the time you're finished."

Shinji glared at the silver haired teen, wanting to hold him down so he didn't go back to the fight while simultaneously wanting to punch him in the gut for being so reckless. Not that he was much better, he thought as he picked up the roll of gauze. "You're full of shit, Aki. You could have gotten your arm sliced off. Why would you pull a dumbass move like going back out there?" He glanced up. "Did you put any ointment on this?"

Akihiko shrugged. "No, we're short on funds. Just wrap it up, I'll be fine." He flexed the muscles in the afflicted arm, wincing slightly afterwards.

Shinji knew that he wasn't supposed to see that. "Idiot." He grabbed Aki's wrist roughly, extending his arm again. "Hold still before you do more damage. And take this." He rummaged through his pockets for a moment, coming up with a medicine that he passed off to Aki. "I don't want to hear about how you don't need it, just take the damn thing."

The eyeroll wasn't what Shinjiro would call an ideal response, but Aki did throw the medication back without a verbal complaint. Progress, he supposed. Like trying to pull fucking teeth.

He didn't like the method, but without another thing for it, he didn't have a choice, so he started to wind the gauze around Aki's arm without further comment.

Akihiko broke the silence first. "I don't get it."

"Get what?" Shinji didn't look up from binding up Aki's arm.

"How you go out into the labyrinth and then come back here and do all this fiddly stuff. Or Tatsumi, he's like that, too. The doctoring and the cooking and-"

"Careful," Shinji muttered, only half serious. His penchant for fluffy dogs and cooking magazines weren't exactly closely guarded secrets amongst the members of SEES, and even less from Aki. Didn't mean he was going to take shit from anyone about it, even Aki. Most of the time, Aki didn't say a word.

"I don't get it," Aki repeated. "I don't have the patience."

"Some of us don't stuff ourselves at Hagakure every day," Shinjiro said, "so we have to fend for ourselves."

"I can fend for myself."

Shinji tugged on the gauze a little more roughly than was strictly necessary. "You should know by now physical strength isn't everything."

"I've yet to see something I haven't been able to beat," Aki boasted; Shinji pulled on the gauze again. "Ow, dammit, Shinji, you're doing that on purpose! If you wanna fight, hit me like a man!"

Shinji rolled his eyes. "Take the hint, idiot." He finished dressing the wound on Akihiko's arm, sighing thinly. "There. If you don't go doing something stupid again, it should heal up in a few- well, I'd say days but who the hell knows in this place?" He cast his gaze around the culture festival. The whole situation came with a rush of both familiarity and uneasiness.

Aki clearly loved it. Shinji saw the thrill, but _someone_ had to have a level head between the two of them.

"I'll give it until the next time we go back into the labyrinth," Akihiko replied, flexing the hand of his uninjured arm. "Then I'll be ready."

"You think you're always ready."

Aki nodded. "Oh yeah." The flourescent light reflected in his eyes, gray pools of endless determination. "Have to be. Stay on our toes. Right, Shinji?"

Shinji shoved his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, yeah." He slouched over on the cement stairs slightly, tired and secretly worn down despite his vow to Aki. A whole damn group of Persona users and being stuck in a perpetual endless festival wasn't all it had cracked up to be. He hadn't longed for the dorms this much since, well, _ever_. He scoffed at his own thoughts.

Akihiko straightened up. "Well, thanks." He pushed himself to his feet, jumping the last step. "Wanna go get some takoyaki? There's nothing good in way of protein here..."

"Yeah, whatever." He was going to be sick of the taste of takoyaki before they were home, he knew it. Hell, he might even end up at Hagakure with the protein fiend if all they had to keep eating was festival stand food.

Shinji sighed. What was this world coming to?

 

 

"By the way, I know what you were saying."

Shinjiro glanced up from his coffee, looking over at his friend. "What?"

"That 'strength isn't always physical'," Aki said over a mouthful, chewing methodically. He looked pretty damn pleased with himself for eating nothing but takoyaki and lemon-line ramune.

Shinji looked at him expressionlessly. "Don't know what you're talkin' about."

Aki popped the last takoyaki in his mouth and turned around in his chair. "Play coy with me all you want, I'm not an idiot."

Shinji snorted, taking a drink of the coffee. It was black, bitter on his tongue. "I still don't know what you're talking about."

"Strength of heart, right?" Akihiko spun his Evoker around his finger before touching it lightly to his head. "You were trying to get at my strength of heart. Polydeuces. Hearts are fickle, though. I'll rely on my fists for everything else." He punched his fist into his open palm, cracking his knuckles.

Shinji blinked. "... I wasn't tryin' to say shit," he grumbled, turning back to his coffee. "Although if you relied on Polydeuces more, you wouldn't get your ass kicked in the meantime," he muttered, adding it mostly under his breath.

Aki's hackles went back up immediately. They never failed to when it came to a fight. But they were interconnected, his fists and his Persona, and it made Sanada an all-around ultimate opponent in the ring.

Not that Shinji would let that shit go to Aki's head by telling him so.

"We'll throw down right here! No Personas. No holds barred!"

Shinjiro hid his smirk into his cup of coffee. "Just sit down before you hurt your arm."

"Don't think you'd have the advantage," Akihiko retorted.

Shinji just shook his head ever so slightly to himself. Someone had to look after this idiot. Too late for him to back out now. Besides, not really his style to back down.

Good thing he didn't want to.

 


End file.
